Well, I can tell you this: the album is complete. We have album art, 8 glorious songs hot of the mastering presses of Mace Tripp aka Roric, and Continuous Mix by yours truly. I’m really happy with the results, I love all the tracks and all the crazy stories that came with them. I finished up the continuous mix around 5am this morning and immediately sent it out to Chris Hobson (Project 2 teacher) and to my Music Video Director, Eddie Cardenas, for placement into the music video. The album is amazing, and now I only have to deal with the paperwork to get it digitally distributed. While the original purpose was to do a limited hard press of CDs, I may not have the time and/or money to do it. The original intent of digital distribution is still perfectly viable, but the hard press might have to go due to budget constraints. I guess I’m learning more about this business every day.

The video is coming along quite well. While we’ve been up against the rock wall with a really strenuous deadline, and then had our project get corrupted and had to start fresh just 3 days ago, we’re really happy with the shots that my Director has put together and very much enjoying the late nights working on the editing and the feel of the video. While I’m not doing a lot of editing (mostly due to my lack of knowledge with the software), it’s nice to see the original vision for the project come to life, in some semblance of what I had originally planned on. The video should be done by Friday morning, just in time for Portfolio 2 class; however, we’ll be continuing the editing and effects processes until next Wednesdays’s portfolio show, where the final video will be used as my Portfolio piece (because it showcases not just my entire album, but my ability to coordinate and executive produce a 25min long music video). *Tip of the hat to Pink Floyd for the inspiration*

I’ve learned a lot in the process of making this album and video.

1) There will always be delays.

2) There will always be changes that you don’t plan for or intend.

3) There will always be people holding your project back with their lack of quick turnaround time.

4) You have to be able to accept those things that you never wanted to accept, because that’s how things are done. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or is the most hair-brained idea you’ve ever heard: someone else will hold control over your project and you won’t be able to do anything about it, and they will try their best to ruin it for you.

5) Passive-Aggressive approaches don’t work AT ALL when it comes to getting unmotivated producers to get you original music that they’re not getting paid for (except for royalties)

6) There is a ton of paperwork associated with releasing an album

7) It won’t be what you envisioned when you started the project, but it will be equally as glorious.

8) You absolutely, positively will go over budget.

I’ve learned a helluva lot with this album and video work, and now I’m ready to take my talents to South Beach….

]]>https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/what-was-that-blur/feed/0natemulderIt’s the final countdown…https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/its-the-final-countdown/
https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/its-the-final-countdown/#respondFri, 08 Mar 2013 00:13:47 +0000http://natemulder.wordpress.com/?p=127]]>Ladies and gentlemen, a music video has been shot.

It was a crazy weekend, filled with time delays and technical difficulties, and we ended up shooting for two days instead of one because of people in the production crew not feeling well, but we got every shot we wanted beautifully, and had a ton of surprises along the way. The editing begins now, and we’re obviously on a short time frame, but it’ll get done, because this was always the plan from the beginning.

Beyond that, the music has been given to the mastering engineering, Roric, with a turnaround in a couple of days. Then, the final continuous mix and send the tracks to CD Baby for distribution. We’re coming to crunch time, and I can feel the heat, but I can see the light.

I’ll be sitting down with my director, Eddie Cardenas, and editing the video mostly between him and myself. He’s already begun work on title screens and credit screens.

On top of that, the website is live and active, and has already caused my webmaster and host a series of problems with data, going through more data in 24 hours than all his other websites combined pull in a month. So, I take that as a very good thing.

With graduation coming on March 22, and the album being digitally released the same day, I also have my public live debut that night at a venue called The Yard in East Village San Diego. So that will be a grand and glorious day to make my professional entrance onto the entertainment scene.

]]>https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/its-the-final-countdown/feed/0natemulderOB sunset shotChicano parkMission Beach boardwalkBalboa Park at nightAlbum, Website, Music Video — ALL IN ONE WEEK?!?!https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/album-website-music-video-all-in-one-week/
https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/album-website-music-video-all-in-one-week/#respondFri, 01 Mar 2013 00:17:58 +0000http://natemulder.wordpress.com/?p=121]]>After a small hiatus from the limelight in order to get my health back under me, I’m pleased to announce that I have acquired all the tracks for my (now) COMPILATION ALBUM (vice EP). They are in need of mastering; however, I’ve already talked to a professional mastering engineer to help me with the project.

So while I wait for the mastering engineer to finish with their work, we continue with the push on the music video being shot this weekend. This Saturday, March 2nd, we will meet at the school and continue on to our numerous locations for a long and tightly scheduled day of fun and music. We have 8 locations to bounce among, with 8 songs to record video for. Thankfully, I’ve also got a director and a head of videographers to help assist me in this whole process. Special shout out to Eddie Cardenas for being the official director, and Colin Eldridge for heading up the collective of videographers that will be assembled for this video. Once the video is done, then we move on to post production, and there I’ll be getting help from Mr. Javier Meza and his skillful touch of After Effects.

On top of all of that, the website has been launched!! www.dj3thereal.com is the official domain and it’s excellent!! I am now able to host all of my DJ mixes no problem, and can now host several that I had not been able to release previously.

So, all in all everything is moving exactly as is necessary. The album is very close to done, and needs only some mastering and the final continuous mix to be recorded for the digital and hard release. Here’s to the future!!

]]>https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/album-website-music-video-all-in-one-week/feed/0natemulderMidterms! EP closing in on completion, Video shoot date sethttps://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/midterms-ep-closing-in-on-completion-video-shoot-date-set/
https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/midterms-ep-closing-in-on-completion-video-shoot-date-set/#respondFri, 08 Feb 2013 02:42:13 +0000http://natemulder.wordpress.com/?p=118]]>Progress continues on the EP and video shoot exactly as planned. The tracks have been requested by February 15th from all producers, and four tracks have been completed with three more for sure deep in the works from two producers. In addition, the project has taken another delightful turn: one of the producers has asked his friend to mix his song, and the friend may do a remix of the song as well. So, I may get a remix of an original to put on the EP as well, which would definitely enhance the project further. Furthermore, several other producers have promised me tracks, though I haven’t heard any level of progress from some of them. Not a bad thing, just harder to count on without knowing how far along they may be. But this is a part of the industry, and I’m eager to learn the mistakes now instead of later.

The video shoot has been slated for March 2nd, and already there are numerous people planning on attending. Additionally, I have had more than enough volunteers to help me pull the shoot off without a problem, giving me multiple camera angles for each shot. The next step in the process is to select every individual location to shoot and begin to plan the routes we will take during the shoot, so everyone is on the same page and to minimize on useless running around. The shoot is scheduled from 10am-6pm. And I have lined up some celebrity cameos for the shoot, so that’ll be fun.

So, everything is moving along as necessary. I still need to get album art for my project, but once I have that and the finished tracks, I’ll be ready to hand them off for some mastering and then send them for digital distribution and for copyright filing. More work to come to ensure this all happens, but I’m confident and faithful that I’ll complete it all for the March 22 EP release date.

]]>https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/midterms-ep-closing-in-on-completion-video-shoot-date-set/feed/0natemulderEP Music Video ShootProgress Is Happening, Pleasant Surprises Aboundhttps://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/progress-is-happening-pleasant-surprises-abound/
https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/progress-is-happening-pleasant-surprises-abound/#respondFri, 01 Feb 2013 00:01:29 +0000http://natemulder.wordpress.com/?p=109]]>This past week turned out to be quite the upswing of the roller coaster of life. Big progress has been made, and some dates are getting set in stone on some big events for this whole endeavor. I’m working with a promoter to set the date of my live DJ debut, which should happen towards the end of February. Then, I got booked for a gig at yet another venue I have had my eyes on for quite a while: The Yard. The kicker on that gig is that it’s the night that I graduate college, and release my EP, and my parents will be in town, so the fact that I’ll be able to perform live that night as well just simply tops the cake…or so I thought.

Allow me to sidetrack a bit. The point of my EP project is to promote the idea of community music, instead of individual music. You see, I’m not making the tracks on my EP, nor will I be taking credit or getting paid for them. The producers of the tracks will receive the credit, fame and money for the songs that they contributed. Therefore, we can garner fame and attention together, instead of fighting and struggling for it individually. By working together selflessly, and putting egos aside for the greater good of the community, then the whole community can benefit all the more, and likely on higher levels. Collaborative musical arrangements have typically been well received and made very good money.

That brings us back to the topic. I got home from some running around on Sunday night to find a track on my Soundcloud page that had been shared only to me. The song was really cool, and really well made. I asked the producer if the track was original to him, and if he was interested in submitting it to my EP, and he told me that was exactly the plan.

Here’s why this is so significant. I hadn’t talked to the person previously about submitting work for the EP, and the fact that he did the track and got it to me shows that the promotion and marketing of my EP was successful. I was able to get an outside producer (someone I hadn’t previously arranged to make a track for the EP) on my project, and to top it off they surprised me with the submission and its amazing quality.

So, the EP sits at 4 completed tracks, with 1 producer sitting on 2 unfinished tracks, and several other producers who have shown me progress on their tracks and with whom I have been keeping in contact. We now are setting final dates for the music video shoot, and then the fun begins, as I try to align numerous DJs and musicians to appear in one particular shot, in a crowded area of Downtown San Diego. It’ll be difficult, but awesome if we can pull it off.

To top it off, I have my website underway and scheduled to go live before graduation. Also, the logo is in the works, with some editing necessary, but overall and solid intro product. A graphic designer has been hired to do this for me.

Live debut, EP, video. All the big things I have to get lined up in the next few weeks. And things are moving along exactly as I have planned.

Beyond that, progress continues from many of the producers, with updates coming in from several of them. Others I still need to follow-up with and ensure that they are coming to a conclusion on these tracks. I can certainly see many of them not finishing on time, which would throw off my entire timeline.

Speaking of timeline, I’ve been talking with some video producers to help with the music video shoot. The date is set for March 9th, and the time will be mid-day. It’ll be a great shoot, and we’ll want as many people as we can get for crowd and street team shots. Should be a lot of fun, and thank goodness I’ll have some help with it.

Hopefully by next week I’ll have more tracks completed. The album art is in the works, as well as the logo. So once we have tracks, then we can plan the video, and send everything in for copyright and digital distribution at the same time. It all comes together then. Such is my (hopeful) genius.

I run a 3-day ad campaign to drum up listens on the track, in order to get people excited for the whole prospect.

]]>https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-ep-saga-continues/feed/0natemulderI run a 3-day ad campaign to drum up listens on the track, in order to get people excited for the whole prospect.10 questionsFinal / Senior Project: EP …JUST PRESS PLAY…https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/final-senior-project-just-press-play/
https://natemulder.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/final-senior-project-just-press-play/#respondFri, 18 Jan 2013 05:21:00 +0000http://natemulder.wordpress.com/?p=95]]>Well, the time has come for my final hurrah in this musical forum we call college. I face my final eleven weeks of school, and graduate on March 22. Between now and then I only have to executive produce my EP and it’s associated music video. Shouldn’t be hard.

OK, I lie. Getting this done won’t be easy, mostly because of the scope of the project. The whole idea of the project is to promote the community aspect within the music industry, to show people that we can work together to create something great, without our egos getting in the way. Since I’m not very musically inclined, I’m not doing a lot of the music making for my EP (though I will be jumping on a track or two, depending on how comfortable I get working with the music at the level I am hoping it will be), which actually adds an entire separate level of difficulty to the project: having to rely on other people to get work done for me.

As far as all my prep work is concerned, I started months ago by contacting numerous producers that i am friends with and began to ask them if they would be interested in working on this project. As I got more and more people involved, I began to see the daunting scope of my plan. Soon as many as 13 producers were involved with the EP, though certainly I understood that some would drop off the project before the end. I created a pre-form letter explaining the whole project in detail, and sent it to those producers. The beginning was go.

Production began shortly thereafter for many of the producers. I began to explore the various options of distribution and working on the video ideas and album art concepts. I have since requested that all tracks be completed and turned in to me by Feb 15th.

The final process will be putting the tracks in a particular order, and then creating the “continuous mix” for the album, my DJing skills put to the test to create a unique sound for the EP, all the tracks played in one continuous DJ mix. This mix will be track 1 on the EP.

I have several different producers working on tracks for this EP, as well as many more individuals that will be involved in the shooting of the video. Too many to include here, tho only some of them go to school with me. I’ve found it beneficial to work outside my school circles often.

As far as equipment is concerned, video equipment will be utilized to shoot the music video, while my Pioneer DDJ-SX will be used to do the continuous mix for the EP.

Without budget constraints, I would include tracks from much more famous producers, such as Tiesto, Wolfgang Gartner, Daft Punk, and Dirtyloud. However, they cost lots of money to produce songs.

The final package for my EP will be a limited-release hard CD with front and back album art, wrapped in plastic, with the primary mode of distribution being purely digital, via iTunes, Amazon, and possibly Beatport.

I expect to be challenged along the way by people unable to get me tracks on time, video problems rearing their ugly heads, and copyright and PRO registration complications.